Editorial from WWW.People.com.cn 26 February 2003-03-14
Ma Longsheng
According to a report broadcast during Central People's Radio "News Digest", the county of Yongkang in Zhejiang province is home to thousands of hardware factories. Industrial safety in these factories is so bad that over a thousand workers lose fingers in accidents every year. The lucky ones get some form of meagre compensation. The less fortunate are left physically disabled, forced to leave their jobs, and go home empty-handed. Such a fate is likely to leave them with huge livelihood and psychological pressures for the rest of their lives.
With as many as 7,000 mostly private enterprises producing hardware goods, Yongkang is known throughout the country as "hardware town". The contribution of these factories to the local economy is difficult to overstate. But the price of over a thousand severed fingers renders it a contribution literally dripping in blood. Such a price cannot help but leave a bitter aftertaste as we savour Yongkang's economic success.
The commentator did not gloss over the details when filing the report from Yongkang. For example, the price of installing protective equipment around a hole-punching machine is no more than a trifling 2,000 yuan. Such equipment could prevent the vast majority of accidents where fingers get severed by unguarded machinery. Yet very few of the factory owners have bothered to purchase such equipment. Need it really take so many severed fingers to find the cause of the accidents?
It was at this time last year that the appalling story of the deaths of young women workers in Baigou, Hebei province hit the headlines. The workers were fatally poisoned after inhaling chemicals from the glue used in industrial and packaging processes. Once again, the recent reports from Yongkang have cast a dark shadow [over the question of industrial safety in China] and left people deeply concerned. The events Baigou jolted the higher authorities into taking action and local officials were obliged to launch a thorough inquiry and rectify the situation. Although there was a great deal fuss and bluster at the time, we don't know if the measures taken have led to a permanent improvement. Nor can we predict the end result of the situation in Yongkang County. But there are some points we can be reasonably sure of: firstly, it is not realistic to expect the workers to [be able to] uphold their rights in accordance with the law; and secondly it is pointless relying on the good conscience of the employers to take the initiative and install safety equipment. At the end of the day, it is the government that has to act.
In the truth, fire-brigade style reactions by the higher authorities to such disasters, which usually involves no more than passing decrees and instructions down the chain of command, is not going to address the issue of passivity among local officials. The latter will jump to attention in an emergency, but why can't these people spend less time complaining about so-called 'shortages of personnel' as a pretext for doing nothing and get on with facing up to their day-to-day responsibilities. It should not be forgotten that although private enterprises make an important contribution to local economies and in many places like Yongkang they are the only asset. But if the entry point of private capital is so low that it excludes any civilizing impetus or motive and the regulation of production slides into a state of apathy and procrastination of the part of local authorities, what guarantees are there for [sustainable] development?
Over the last few years the private entrepreneurial economic activity in Zhejiang province has been something of a beacon for the whole country. A number of provinces have been closely monitoring the situation and are working hard to draw up plans for a similar model in their own regions. But as the reporter says quite candidly, while there are elements of the Zhejiang model worth studying, some of the results that have emerged from years of accumulated experience including some forms of accumulation itself are perhaps not so worthy of imitation. If we are to build a civilized, prosperous and healthy society as envisaged by the 16th Party Congress, private enterprise needs to develop a totally new kind of philosophy that raises the ethical benchmarks for entrepreneurial activity to a civilized level.
One thing is for sure; we dont need sink any lower and suffer the embarrassment of headlines along the lines of One Thousand Severed Fingers.
Ma Longsheng
According to a report broadcast during Central People's Radio "News Digest", the county of Yongkang in Zhejiang province is home to thousands of hardware factories. Industrial safety in these factories is so bad that over a thousand workers lose fingers in accidents every year. The lucky ones get some form of meagre compensation. The less fortunate are left physically disabled, forced to leave their jobs, and go home empty-handed. Such a fate is likely to leave them with huge livelihood and psychological pressures for the rest of their lives.
With as many as 7,000 mostly private enterprises producing hardware goods, Yongkang is known throughout the country as "hardware town". The contribution of these factories to the local economy is difficult to overstate. But the price of over a thousand severed fingers renders it a contribution literally dripping in blood. Such a price cannot help but leave a bitter aftertaste as we savour Yongkang's economic success.
The commentator did not gloss over the details when filing the report from Yongkang. For example, the price of installing protective equipment around a hole-punching machine is no more than a trifling 2,000 yuan. Such equipment could prevent the vast majority of accidents where fingers get severed by unguarded machinery. Yet very few of the factory owners have bothered to purchase such equipment. Need it really take so many severed fingers to find the cause of the accidents?
It was at this time last year that the appalling story of the deaths of young women workers in Baigou, Hebei province hit the headlines. The workers were fatally poisoned after inhaling chemicals from the glue used in industrial and packaging processes. Once again, the recent reports from Yongkang have cast a dark shadow [over the question of industrial safety in China] and left people deeply concerned. The events Baigou jolted the higher authorities into taking action and local officials were obliged to launch a thorough inquiry and rectify the situation. Although there was a great deal fuss and bluster at the time, we don't know if the measures taken have led to a permanent improvement. Nor can we predict the end result of the situation in Yongkang County. But there are some points we can be reasonably sure of: firstly, it is not realistic to expect the workers to [be able to] uphold their rights in accordance with the law; and secondly it is pointless relying on the good conscience of the employers to take the initiative and install safety equipment. At the end of the day, it is the government that has to act.
In the truth, fire-brigade style reactions by the higher authorities to such disasters, which usually involves no more than passing decrees and instructions down the chain of command, is not going to address the issue of passivity among local officials. The latter will jump to attention in an emergency, but why can't these people spend less time complaining about so-called 'shortages of personnel' as a pretext for doing nothing and get on with facing up to their day-to-day responsibilities. It should not be forgotten that although private enterprises make an important contribution to local economies and in many places like Yongkang they are the only asset. But if the entry point of private capital is so low that it excludes any civilizing impetus or motive and the regulation of production slides into a state of apathy and procrastination of the part of local authorities, what guarantees are there for [sustainable] development?
Over the last few years the private entrepreneurial economic activity in Zhejiang province has been something of a beacon for the whole country. A number of provinces have been closely monitoring the situation and are working hard to draw up plans for a similar model in their own regions. But as the reporter says quite candidly, while there are elements of the Zhejiang model worth studying, some of the results that have emerged from years of accumulated experience including some forms of accumulation itself are perhaps not so worthy of imitation. If we are to build a civilized, prosperous and healthy society as envisaged by the 16th Party Congress, private enterprise needs to develop a totally new kind of philosophy that raises the ethical benchmarks for entrepreneurial activity to a civilized level.
One thing is for sure; we dont need sink any lower and suffer the embarrassment of headlines along the lines of One Thousand Severed Fingers.